


Dark ones are like children (very violent ones)

by FoolishPrince



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26033707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoolishPrince/pseuds/FoolishPrince
Summary: In which Emma becomes the dark one and Regina suddenly finds herself in charge of two children.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 214





	Dark ones are like children (very violent ones)

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i don't own Once Upon A Time
> 
> also, enjoy!

Emma becomes the dark one and disappears. The town doesn’t even mourn the loss of their precious savior; they just fear for her return. Snow and David act as if they’ve lost her forever. Hook blames Regina. Henry and Regina are the only ones who are concerned when the blonde still doesn’t show up after two weeks.

When Emma does return, the town panics. No one knows whether to lock their doors and hide or grab their pitch forks. Emma presents them a third option. She struts into Granny’s, pale skin and dark leather standing out in stark contrast amongst the panicked crowd. She shows little interest in the stiff silence as she scans the patrons until she spots her target and continues forward. Regina watches those intense gray-green eyes zero in on her, never straying from her as people scramble out the way and Granny thrust her crossbow on the counter.

“Emma” Regina meets her halfway. “where have you been?” Emma doesn’t answer her question. Instead she reaches into her sleeve and pulls out her dagger. She makes a show of flipping it in the air before catching it by the blade and holding it out to Regina.

“keep an eye on this for me?” she asks, manually curling Regina’s fingers around the hilt.

“you’re giving me the dagger?” Regina gasps taking the blade. Emma just tilts her head and offers a coy smirk before vanishing in a cloud of white mist.

With that, all eyes turn to her and Regina becomes the official babysitter of the dark one.

Hook doesn’t take well to Regina having the dagger. He demands she hand it over so he can ‘control’ his ‘true love’ and insults her when she refuses. Emma doesn’t take well to Hook’s behavior and the next day Hook is found suspended from the clock tower by his long johns. Regina decides not to reprimand her for that stunt.

Months go by relatively uneventful and the towns settles slightly in wary acceptance. With the worry of the town out of the way, Regina finds herself falling into a routine of searching for a cure, caring for Henry, and keeping Emma in check. When she’s not in hiding or causing the town to go into a panic, Emma spends most of her time with Regina and Henry. With Emma in close proximity as often as she is, Regina realizes something she’s surprised she hadn’t noticed before.

Dark ones are just like children (very violent ones).

She makes a list of points to prove it.

  1. **Children bickered with each other constantly.**



“Hmm, maybe we could make some type of chart or something to help you stay _you_ ” Henry states as he finishes up the last bit of his dinner. Emma glance up from her untouched plate to him with narrowed eyes.

“I swear to god if you try to Lilo and stitch me, I will hang you from the clock tower by your boxers” she threatened (she seemed to have a real penchant for atomic weggies as of late).

“Emma!” Regina tried to scold, but she couldn’t quite hide her amusement at Henry’s horrified face. They both knew there was probably some true behind that threat, seeing as the blonde had already preformed the act on four others.

“You can’t do that, I’m your son!!” Henry immediately protests.

“I can do it _because_ you’re my son” Emma counters, smirking at her sons panicked expression as he actually entertains the idea that she might be serious.

“It would cause me pain”

“I’ll make it so you only feel mild discomfort”

“I’d be humiliated!”

“I’d be amused”

Regina decides to jump in before they went any further.

“Alright children, settle down” she chides. Emma shoots her a death glare while Henry pouts.

……

“what movie do you two want to watch?” Regina settles on the couch, remote in hand.

“Lilo and Stitch” Henry requests enthusiastically with a certain glint in his eyes.

“no way! You just want to watch that so you can take notes” Emma easily reads the look in his eyes.

“what? No, I just really like the movie”

“liar, you’re trying to do research”

“am not!”

“are too!”

“am not!”

“are too!”

“am-”

“ENOUGH! We are watching a documentary” Regina holds a hand up when they both go to protest. They fall on either side of her with twin pouts. Emma vanishes halfway through and Henry falls asleep. Regina learns about Tasmanian devils.

  1. **Striking a deal to get them to behave was a common occurrence.**



“We’re having dinner at your parents tonight”

“I’m not going”

“You _are_ going. You’re the reason were having this dinner in the first place. Besides, you haven’t seen your parents in a month, they’re starting to think it’s my fault”

“I don’t want to go” Emma huffs.

“Well, too bad.” The blonde clenches her teeth and looks like she’s about to bolt, but Regina quickly snags her wrist. “Emma” she warns.

“Regina” Emma challenges.

“We’re going”

“Fine” Emma concedes remarkably quick and Regina gets a bad feeling about the look in her eyes.

…..

It takes one burnt casserole and two broken dishes for Regina to realize what that look from earlier was all about.

“Stop that” she hisses under her breath, stomping on Emma’s foot when Snow conveniently misses her mouth and pours her drink down her shirt for the third time.

Neal's bottle suddenly slams into David’s head, “ouch!” he yelps and Emma moves her foot out of the way. Regina elbows her in the gut and pinches Henry for giggling.

“Oh dear! I’m so sorry, this night has been a disaster” Snow cries out after another failed attempt at sipping her water.

“Nonsense Snow, it just started off on the wrong foot” Regina plasters a faux smile on her face and stands, yanking Emma to her feet as she does so. “Tell you what, Emma and I will go and get a pizza and we’ll see if we can salvage this evening”

She whirls around on the blonde the second they enter the safety of her car.

“What the hell are you doing?” she demands.

The blonde’s lips quirk, “uh, having dinner?”

“So, help me Emma, if you make me pretend to be any nicer to your mother, I will personally make sure you are the last dark one ever!” she growled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”

Regina sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. She just needs this night to end so she switches tactics.

“Emma, if you promise to behave for the rest of the night, I’ll teach you a new magical spell”

“I’m the dark one” Emma deadpans, unimpressed.

“fine! What do you want?” Regina groans.

Emma chuckles mischievously, “I want to sleep in your bed”

“What?” Regina questions before back peddling, “you know what? Fine. If you behave, you can sleep in my bed. Do we have a deal?”

“deal”

The rest of the night goes by smoothly. Emma eats a slice of pizza without protest, pretends to be amused by one of David’s horrible jokes, and even lets Snow give her a brief hug without pushing her away.

Emma sleeps in her bed that night and the next and the next after that. The deal never specified how often Emma could sleep in her bed. So, Emma in her bed becomes a regular occurrence. The blonde thinks she getting away with something, but Regina’s secretly okay with because it means Emma’s not off causing problems during the night.

  1. **They were temperamental on their best of days.**



Henry makes a Lilo and Stitch-esque Emma chart. Emma finds it, tears it up, and turns all of Henry’s school uniforms pink. Regina wisely decides to stay out of that dispute.

….

Mother superior comments on how well behaved the dark one is and Emma promptly throws a candle at the back of her head when she walks away. Suffice to say, they stay away from convent after that.

….

Snow suggests Emma put on normal clothes so she could ‘blend in’. Emma pushes her mother off the pier. Regina, though secretly pleased, makes a show of disciplining the blonde for appearances sake.

….

Regina tells the blonde she can’t wear her shoes in the house. Emma attempts another go at Regina’s apple tree. Regina is quick to put a stop to that. Emma immediately kicks off her shoes when in the house and doesn’t attempt to cross Regina again after that. The sight of the apple tree makes her cringe now.

  1. **They could be sweet when they wanted to.**



Regina blinks the blurriness from eyes, trying to focus on the page in front of her to no avail. The day had been a rough one. First, a magical creature attacks the town. She and Emma take it out with ease, but the town don’t like the dark one involved in magical heroics. A few people rudely voiced their opinions and Emma, in a fit of rage, blew up a power grid and vanished. That didn’t go well with said people and they angrily demanded to know why Regina had yet to fix their savior. When they didn’t like the answers Regina gave them, they got angrier until she had to call David to send them all home.

Now, she sat in her study pouring over the pages of her magical textbooks in hopes of finding anything that might help her save Emma. Despite not giving a damn about the opinions of the other fairy tale folk, a few of their questions hit home. She had been searching for a cure since Emma first disappeared and six months had passed since then with no results. She felt like she was failing Emma.

After several minutes of reading the same sentence over, she drops her head into her hands and gives up. Footsteps approach, but she pays them no mind until something gently clinks on the desk beneath her hands. She peeks through her fingers and sees someone has placed a cup on the desk.

“It’s lavender. Your favorite” Emma offers softly. Regina looks up, surprised to find an uncharacteristically skittish look on the dark ones otherwise neutral face.

“Thank you, dear” Regina smiles up at her and Emma tries to smile back, but it ends up being more of a grimace. Regina takes a sip of her tea and hums when it soothes her aching head. Emma just observes her.

After a beat of silence Emma shifts and shoots Regina another grimace.

“Would it…‘sigh’ would it perhaps put you more at ease if I were to leave town?” she asks, looking uncomfortable when Regina just stares at her in shock. “Well?”

“Emma, where is this coming from?” she stands up to catch the blonde’s eyes.

“Those people yelled at you for hours today” she huffs. “they keep acting like the things I do are your fault”

“Emma” Regina coos, pulling the blonde against her. She’s pleasantly surprised when the blonde doesn’t aggressively push her away, even more so when arms encircle her waist. Emma wasn’t much for hugs nowadays.

“If I left, it would be easier for you. You wouldn’t have to worry all the time” Emma mumbles mutely into her shoulder. Regina smiles, touched by the other woman’s concern.

“just because you left doesn’t mean I wouldn’t worry” she hums stroking her fingers down a tense back.

“But-”

“There’s no argument, dear. You’re staying”

“why?”

“If you left, I would still worry. I would worry where you were and if you were taking proper care of yourself, if you were eating right, if you had a place to sleep at night-”

“That doesn’t make sense”

“It does make sense because I care about you and I want you to stay”

“You…do?”

“Yes. So, stay, okay?”

“Okay”

“good” Regina hugs her tighter for a moment before pulling away to hold her at arm’s length. “Now, I’m not going to find any unfortunate towns folk hanging from the clock town by their undergarments, am I?”

Emma ‘poofs’ away.

  1. **They were surprisingly easy to love**



“I’ll kill him” Emma fumes pacing the length of Regina’s room.

“Please don’t” Regina sighs, lazily lounging against her headboard as she watches the blonde wildly spin circles around her room. The dark one had been on this angry rampage for an hour now, having come home to discover Regina quietly sipping at some cider. It took all Regina had to get Emma to stay when the blonde had discovered Regina had split up with Robin.

“he dumped you! He doesn’t deserve to live!” It had actually been a mutual break up, but Emma had correctly assumed that Robin was the first one to bring it up.

“Emma, I told you I was fine. Will you sit down already?”

“No! he must pay for hurting you! First, I’m going to hang him by the clock tower in nothing, but a thong-”

“Emma-”

“Then I’ll give him breast!-”

“Emma!-”

“Then I’ll shoot-”

“MISS SWAN” Emma reared on, eyes ablaze.

The blonde marched up to her, not stopping until they were nose to nose “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t call me that” she hissed lowly.

“you weren’t listening to me” Regina shot back, eyes fluttering at how close they were.

“I don’t like it when you call me that” Emma growled, stepping back.

“Well listen to me then” Regina whispered, grabbing the blondes chin to make her focus on her. She smiled softy when the blonde immediately relaxed in her hold. “I’m not hurt, I’m actually relieved”

“You are?”

“Yes”

“Why? I thought y’all were soulmates”

“We are, but I realized something when we talking”

“What was that?”

“Well, when Robin suggested we could try to make things work if I stopped spending all my time with you…” she gripped Emma’s chin tighter when she tried to pull away in anger. “Listen, when Robin suggested that, I realized I didn’t want to spend more time with him if it meant spending less time with you”

“What?”

“I didn’t want to give up my time with you”

“Why?”

“Well, dear” she started, stroking the side of the blonde’s head. Her lips quirked when Emma’s eyes fluttered shut. “despite all the trouble you’ve been getting into, these past few months have actually been rather pleasant. You, Henry and I have spent more time together then ever and I realized spending more time with Robin meant spending less time with you and Henry. Spending less time with my family”

Emma’s eyes snapped open, “You-you think of me as your family?”

“Yes, and I wouldn’t give up spending time with you for anything in the world”

“R-really?”

“Really” she confirmed pulling the other woman into a hug.

They stood their holding each other until Emma pulled back.

“Regina?”

“Yes?”

“May I kiss you?”

Regina gasped, her breath stuttering to a stop as she took in the intense look in Emma’s eyes. She nodded and her eyes fluttered shut as Emma slowly leaned in. They both jumped when their lips brushed, but they didn’t pull away. Regina sighed into the kiss and tangled her fingers in the blonde’s hair. She moaned when Emma pulled her closer.

A bright light suddenly burst from their lips and they jumped apart with wide eyes. Emma gasped, griping at her chest and stumbled away.

“Regina, I don’t… I don’t feel the..” She couldn’t get her words to form a proper sentence and eventually stuttered to a stop. She just gaped at Regina with shocked eyes.

Regina gasped as well, taking in Emma’s healthy looking skin and her once again yellow curls. She dashed to the back of her closet and dug out the box hidden there. She opened it and gasped at what she saw inside.

“Emma! It’s gone!” she shouted, running back into the room to shoved the box into the blonde’s hands. “your name is gone!” she squealed, pointing to the broken pieces of the dagger.

“Wow”

They both stood there for several minutes, staring at the dagger in awe. Suddenly, Emma burst into laughter, startling Regina.

“Well what do you know? Guess you really did make sure I was the last ever dark one” She said, breaking into another fit of giggles. Regina smirked.

“idiot” she admonished, pulling the blonde to her so she could press their foreheads together.

And when Emma continues to giggle in glee, Regina thinks perhaps it was Emma who was the child all along and not the dark one.

Luckily, they have the rest of their lives as true loves to figure out.


End file.
